The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program. The objectives of the planned breeding program were to develop new Guzmania varieties. The new variety originated from a cross pollination of the seed parent, unpatented Guzmania conifera×lingulata variety ‘Cardinalis’ and the pollen parent, the unpatented Guzmania lingulata variety ‘El Cope’. The crossing was made during September of 2002 in a commercial greenhouse in Alajuela, Costa Rica.
The new variety was discovered by the inventor, Chester Skotak Jr., in September of 2006 in a group of seedlings resulting from the crossing. The new cultivar was found in a commercial greenhouse in Alajuela, Costa Rica.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘G9518’ was first performed at a commercial laboratory in Evergem, Belgium, by tissue culture on August of 2011. Subsequent propagation by tissue culture has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.